Starting in mid December, anyone wanting to take part in trading items on Valve’s Steam, will need to have Steam Guard activated. This currently optional layer of protection is being implemented, presumably to prevent hackers taking advantage of the system.

This news was spotted by a Redditor, with other commenters suggesting that this could be being put in place to help prevent some of the problems seen with last year’s Steam Winter Sale, which saw rampant game trading exploitations. People who were given game vouchers and prizes for certain purchases, were creating new accounts and trading items between them for maximum rewards. With Steam Guard needing to be active for 15 days before you can trade, much of these exploits should be avoided.

This message was spotted by an eagle eyed Redditor

Steam Guard is a bit of technology that makes it difficult for someone to sign into your Steam account from a remote location, as when they try to do so, an authentication request is sent via email to the account holder.

KitGuru Says: Do you guys have Steam Guard enabled already, or will you be switching it on after this news? Let us know below.